Sunday, September 2, 2012

I’ll be in lovely Manchester, NY for a few weeks visiting my mother Pauline and the rest of the family. We’ll have a steady
stream of new videos as usual, but I am going to try to take a little break
from the laptop, and stay offline as much as I can. So far so good…I think I
only tweeted four or five times yesterday!

Uncle Billy. One of my most
influential culinary mentors!

Anyway, speaking of family, today is the famous D’Arduini
family reunion, and if that name sounds familiar, it should. Despite being one
of our older, low-res videos, Chicken D’Arduini, which I filmed here years ago
with my uncle Bill D’Arduini, has remained one of our most popular chicken recipes
ever.

To honor the occasion, I’m reposting this wonderful dish just
in case you haven’t seen it, or maybe forgot how delicious it really is. I hope
you have a great holiday, and as always, enjoy!

In the original post you say, "....any light flavored olive oil will work. Nothing to heavy or extra extra virgin."

I don't understand the prohibition against using extra virgin oil, perhaps other than the cost. The extra virgin, organic Ligurian olive oil I use has a lovely, light flavor. I buy 50kg once each February and my wife and use it for all our ordinary cooking.

"Extra virgin" does not imply "heavy" or "strong flavored", at least here in Italy.

No, you want everything crowded here! By her logic no stew or braised dish would ever be good. She is wrong. She may be thinking of things like seared steaks or chicken when you are trying to get a crust and don't want the meat to steam in it's own juice.

Hi Chef John,I've tried this recipe twice and it is just amazingly delicious and unique!!!I wanted to ask your permission to start making it for labor day as a tradition :)I hope you have a relaxing holiday because you deserve it!Cheers!!

No Chef John, no. The fact is this pan is overcrowded. I can think of 10 ways to make this dish better, that don't include over cooking the chicken (yuck) or having the inevitable situation when you're chewing on gristle. On the flip side of the coin it's nice that you're posting a recipe from someone you admire, so I'll let you off, but I would not serve this dish, or eat it.

I'm sorry, but you are completely wrong. Besides the obvious browning step I already wrote about, chicken thighs and legs are perfect falling off the bone! If you tasted this dish EXACTLY as shown, you'd not only love it, you'd compose a formal apology to uncle bill! ;)

Hello C John...You have saved the day with an oldy but goodie! I did the pork chops with onion gravy (onions smothered). Weird chops in my package and I was baffeled for a moment - but then I thought "what would Chef John do". I got a standing ovation! Thanks a million - your efforts to get the day to day cooks trying something a little different works! Hope my heart felt thanks keep you doing a really good thing! Keep um coming! Jan W

I'm going to side with Uncle Bill here and say not every piece of meat needs to be browned.Some dishes are just better that way.Looks like this dish uses the fat from the dark meat to make a sticky sauce.If you browned the chicken first,it wouldn't release all the fat and juice.I think CJ has spoiled you all with elaborate presentations and that's saying a lot because his platings aren't usually over the top.Just enjoy a simple 1 pan dish!

That being said,Uncle Bill looks like quite a character.Family trait perhaps?

Regarding extra virgin olive oil, my recollection is that in one of Mark (Coyote Cafe, Red Sage, etc.) Miller's cookbooks, he specifically says not to use extra virgin olive oil for cooking, especially in higher heat applications, because it tends to produce "off" flavors.

Since reading that (and I apologize for not citing the source since I'm at work at the moment and away from my cookbook library), I've always used plain olive oil for anything that requires heat, saving the extra virgin for salads, drizzles, etc.

I've always assumed that Chef Miller had good reason for his statements but who knows?

I would just like to suggest to the people criticizing the crowdedness of the pan, that you might want to actually try the recipe first. I have made this 2 or 3 times and it is absolutely fantastic! It's a wonderful change of pace for a chicken dish. And I personally would not consider the olives optional, as they go very well with the other flavors -- but then again I love olives. Anyway, consider this my formally composed "thank you" to Uncle Bill!!

Oh em gee ;P I have to say I had my doubts (just based on the looks; not the prettiest looking chicken dish). BUT, I made this one last night for us and it was absolutely delicious. We're definitely keeping this one in the MUST MAKE AGAIN and again... I didn't measure my wine that went in, and i think i might have put a bit more than the recipe called for (just guessing based on color) b/c my sauce was a lot darker than how his looks in the video, but it was still really lovely!

Finally made this tonight and WOW!!!! That's a keeper:)Used a cab/ merlot blend,greek olives and white mushrooms.Served it with fettuccine.Wasn't even that labor intensive either.My love to your Uncle Bill.

I can't believe the haters on this recipe. My advice would be don't knock it til you've tried it!

Your recipes are absolutely fantastic and I can see where you get it from (Uncle Bill!) This one in particular I made recently, only I used artichoke hearts instead of mushrooms. Absolutely incredible - this was one of, if not the best chicken dish I've ever had.

For someone who used to burn out the kitchen making a PB&J your delicious, easy to follow recipes have been an inspiration!

Hello Chef John, this dish was great, can you please post an updated video of it like you did with the chicken parmesan video? this dish is like a hidden gem in this channel, more people need to see it :)